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♦LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 

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JM e // .?*l 



f UNITED STATES (IF AMERICA. ! 



REPORT TO THE CONTRIBUTORS 



PENNSYLVANIA RELIEF ASSOCIATION 



EAST TENNESSEE, 



COMMISSION SENT BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



VISIT THAT REGION, AND FORWARD SUPPLIES TO THE LOYAL 
AND SUFFERING INHABITANTS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION. 

1864. 



PENNSYLVANIA RELIEF ASSOCIATION 



EAST TENNESSEE. 



PEESIDENT. 

EX. GOV. JAMES POLLOCK, 

U. S. Mint. 

I 

SECEETAEY. 

JOSEPH T. THOMAS, 

245 South 5th Street. 

TEEASUEEE. 

CALEB COPE, 

306 Walnut Street. 

Chairman of the Committee on Collections and for the Forwarding of Supplies. 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT, 

715 Market Street. 

Chairman of Executive Committee. 
LLOYD P. SMITH, 

Philadelphia Library. 



At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Relief Association for East Tennessee, held 
March 26th, 1864, Ex-Gov. Pollock in the chair, the Commission appointed at 
the last meeting to visit Knoxville and make arrangements for the transmission 
of supplies, made a Report ; whereupon the following resolutions were, on motion, 
unanimously adopted: — 

Resolved, That the Report be accepted and that the earnest and heart-felt 
thanks of this Association be returned to the Commissioners for their untiring 
industry and efficiency in the discharge of their duties. 

Resolved, That the Report be referred back to the Commission, with a request 
to prepare the same for publication for the use of the Contributors to the Fund. 



REPORT. 



The fact that throughout the Southern States a large propor- 
tion of the people has never, in heart, renounced allegiance to 
the Federal Government, is proved by the immense numbers 
in that section of the Union who have been imprisoned, exiled, 
robbed, and murdered by the rebels. It is shown by the num- 
bers who have braved every peril to reach the lines of our 
army, with a view to enlist under the flag of the United States ; 
and by the welcome which our troops have met with in every 
part of the Southwest, in North Carolina, and elsewhere. If any 
justification were needed in the court of conscience and before 
the tribunal of History for taking up the gauntlet thrown down 
by the Southern leaders when they dared to fire upon the flag of 
our common country, and for prosecuting the war thus com- 
menced to a successful issue, the mute appeals of Union men, 
who have been imprisoned in great numbers rather than take 
the hated oath to a pretended government ; whose crops have been 
destroyed, whose houses have been burned ; who have been mur- 
dered upon their own thresholds, or while following the plough, 
for refusing to enter the rebel ranks ; who have been hunted with 
bloodhounds, and shot in the woods and swamps like wild beasts, 
for trying to evade the conscription; these indications of southern 
loyalty would be justification enough. They are enough to bind 
us of the North by every consideration of honor and self-respect 
to carry on this war until indemnity for the past and security for 



6 

the future can be afforded to those who, relying on our strength 
and perseverance, ventured to range themselves on our side. 
We cannot desert these men without disgrace. They have stood 
by us in this awful conflict, and we must stand by them. Nearly 
all parts of the South have shown these signs of loyalty in a 
greater or less degree, but the record of East Tennessee will go 
down to posterity in colors eternally bright with the noblest 
evidences of unflinching patriotism. The story of the wrongs 
endured by that brave and noble people during two years and a 
half of rebel rule, and of their present destitution, is told in 
language eloquent with the force of simple truth in the Ad- 
dress of the East Tennessee Belief Association of Knoxville, 
which forms an Appendix (A.) to this Eeport. To that Address 
your Commissioners beg leave to call the attention of every one 
who would understand the condition of things in that most inter- 
esting section of the United States. It contains many facts pre- 
viously unknown to Northern men. 

Although the cloud of war has hitherto obscured from our 
sight the sufferings of our brothers in East Tennessee, glimpses 
have been obtained from time to time sufficient to excite our 
sympathies ; and when a delegate from that land, Col. N. G. Tay- 
lor, appealed on behalf of his people to this community, in a 
speech delivered on the 29th January last, at the Academy of 
Music, Philadelphia at once responded. An association was or- 
ganized on the spot, and a committee appointed to collect funds 
for the relief of East Tennessee. Our citizens did not fail to 
show, by liberal contributions, their admiration for the patriotism 
and fortitude of their suffering though far-off brethren, and in a 
short time a considerable sum was collected and handed over to 
the Treasurer to purchase food and clothing for them. 

To the ladies of Philadelphia, however, ever patriotic, and ever 
full of good works, belongs the honor of being the first to answer 
the cry of the famishing. So far back as the early part of Decem- 
ber, 1863, Mrs. Joseph Canby and Mrs. Caleb W. Hallowell heard 



some soldiers of Kearney's regiment speak of the famine in East 
Tennessee, and of how they had sometimes themselves lived on 
a cracker a day, in order to give to the children who flocked to 
the camp begging for the remnants of their rations. Touched 
with compassion, they quietly went to work to sew and collect 
articles for a Fair ; and being joined by their friends and neigh- 
bors, including some from Norristown and Lancaster County, 
the Fair will be held next week. 

The Governor of Pennsylvania, in an earnest appeal, recom- 
mended in January an appropriation by the Legislature, and a 
Bill for that purpose is now pending. Col. Taylor has also since 
visited Boston and other places, in company with Col. Jesse E. 
Peyton, to whom East Tennessee is under deep obligations for 
his valuable and disinterested services in her behalf; and has 
met with a response similar to that of this State. In Boston 
his appeal resulted in the voluntary contribution of very large 
sums, out of which the Hon. Edward Everett, Treasurer of the 
Massachusetts Association, generously intrusted to our care ten 
thousand dollars, to be applied at once to the object in view. 

In the meantime some of the leading Union citizens of East 
Tennessee, men of intelligence and probity, hearing of the work 
going on at the East, formed themselves, at the instance of Col. 
Taylor, into " The East Tennessee Eelief Association," to co-ope- 
rate with us, by raising additional funds, and by undertaking to 
distribute the supplies about to be forwarded, in an impartial 
and judicious manner. They also appointed a committee to 
address the President of the United States, and through him, 
both Houses of Congress, on the condition and wants of the 
people of East Tennessee, and ask their attention to the necessity 
of some action on the part of the government for their relief. 
The interesting and touching Address of that committee is ap- 
pended to this Eeport, as mentioned above. 

This action at the scene of distress at once relieved our Asso- 
ciation from an onerous and difficult part of its labor, and it only 



remained to purchase such supplies of food, seeds, clothing, &c, 
as were indicated by the Knox vi lie Association, and to transmit 
them to their destination. Here, however, a serious difficulty 
presented itself. The only practicable communication with East 
Tennessee was by the military railroad from Nashville to Chatta- 
nooga and thence to Knoxville ; and this road is always so 
choked up with army supplies that it is impossible to forward 
anything save by favor of the military authorities. 1 

Impressed with this fact, your Executive Committee, at a meet- 
ing held on the 16th February, appointed a sub-committee, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Joseph T. Thomas and Frederic Collins, to lay 
the case before the "War Department, and ask for free transporta- 
tion for our supplies. 

At a meeting held on the 29th February, the sub-committee 
reported that they had had an interview with the Secretary of 
"War, who assured them that whenever commissioners were ap- 
pointed to proceed to Tennessee, he would give them a letter 
to General Grant, requesting him to furnish them with all the 
facilities of transportation in his power. Accordingly a commis- 
sion consisting of Frederic Collins, N. G. Taylor, of East Ten- 
nessee, and Lloyd P. Smith, was appointed to proceed to Cincin- 
nati, and purchase supplies of food there ; to appoint agents at 
Cincinnati, Nashville, and Chattanooga ; to make all necessary 
arrangements for transportation, and to have a personal interview 
with the officers of the East Tennessee Relief Association at 
Knoxville. The names on this commission were forwarded to 
the Secretary of War, and in due time the promised credentials 
from the Department were received. They are given herewith 
(see Appendix B), and were of essential service in carrying out 
the work of your Commissioners. 

Col. Taylor, who was absent from the city at the time of his 

1 It is understood that the other road from Nashville to the Tennessee River 
(at Decatur) has been opened within a few days. This will somewhat lessen 
the difficulty of transportation. 



appointment, telegraphed us from Boston, that his engagements 
would not permit him to return home at present, and requested 
us not to wait for him, but to proceed at once on our mission. 
We did so, leaving Philadelphia on the 4th of March, and being 
kindly passed free of charge on the railroads between this city 
and Cincinnati, as, indeed, we were afterwards, over the whole 
route to Knoxville and back. 

Meanwhile, the Knoxville Association, not knowing our plans, 
had appointed an agent, Mr. Gr. M. Hazen. to proceed to Cincin- 
nati or elsewhere, and invest any funds that might be contributed 
to their Association, in the purchase of supplies, and to attend to 
their transportation. We were so fortunate as to meet Mr. Hazen 
at Cincinnati, where we had a conference at the Burnett House, 
with him and Mr. David Richardson, the Chairman of the Execu- 
tive Committee of the Knoxville Association. At that confer- 
ence it was agreed that the first shipment should consist of 

200 bbls. flour, 10 bbls. beans, 

20 hkds. bacon, 20 bbls. sugar, 

20 sacks coffee, 200 bags salt, 

4 tierces rice, 20 casks soda, 
10 bbls. molasses, 

and that these articles should be sent by water to Nashville. 
This shipment we accordingly made, purchasing the supplies 
through the instrumentality of Mr. T. G. Odiorne, of the Sani- 
tary Commission, who was accustomed to perform similar duties 
for that Association, and who generously tendered his valuable 
services. 

As Mr. Hazen's instructions required him to see Col. Taylor at 
New York, Mr. Richardson kindly accompanied us to Knoxville, 
in his stead. 

Before leaving Cincinnati we called a meeting in the ladies' 
dining-room of the Burnett House, of such gentlemen from East 
Tennessee as happened to be in Cincinnati, including a delega- 
tion then on their way to Washington to lay the case of East 



10 

Tennessee before the government, inviting also a number of in- 
fluential citizens of Cincinnati. The meeting was organized by 
calling Mr. George F. Davis, President of the Cincinnati Chamber 
of Commerce, to the chair, and after we had stated the object of 
our mission, speeches were made by Col. Netherland and others 
from East Tennessee, as well as by several residents of Cincinnati. 
The latter, while heartily sympathizing with the object of our 
Association, were impressed with the belief that their own duties 
lay nearer home, and that there was great need of a special organi- 
zation for the relief of the refugees now arriving at points on the 
Ohio Eiver in great numbers. They agreed to call a public 
meeting on the following Thursday, and we were gratified to find, 
on our subsequent return to Cincinnati, that the new society was 
already in vigorous life, and had collected a considerable sum of 
money. A circular issued by the Association is appended hereto 
(see Appendix C), and we heartily commend the Eefugee Belief 
Commission of Ohio to your sympathies and aid. 

On our arrival at Nashville we were introduced by the Hon. 
Horace Maynard to Mrs. John Harris, of Philadelphia, who took 
us to visit the building appropriated by government for refugees. 
Some account will be given in a later part of this Eeport, of the 
deplorable condition in which we found these sufferers. Suffice 
it to say in this place, that we gave $500 from the funds at our 
disposal, to Mrs. Harris, for the benefit of the helpless women 
and children to whose necessities she and other benevolent ladies 
are now engaged in ministering. At the same time we impressed 
upon such influential gentlemen as we happened to meet, the 
utility of organizing a society in Nashville for the relief of refu- 
gees. This was afterwards done, and the names of the officers 
are copied below (see Appendix D). 

Waiting upon Col. 'Donaldson, the Chief Quartermaster at 
Nashville, we found him desirous of aiding us. He informed us 
of the extreme pressure put upon him for the transportation of 



11 

army supplies, but nevertheless very kindly promised that our 
freight should go forward immediately on arrival. 

We accordingly proceeded to Chattanooga, where we were 
kindly received by Mr. M. C. Read, of the Sanitary Commission 
there, who entered warmly into our plans, as his brother, Dr. A. 
N. Read, the Sanitary Agent at Nashville, had done before him. 
Mr. Read suggested that one of the most useful things we could 
forward would be early garden seeds, and he offered to distribute 
them to suitable persons in his neighborhood. We accordingly 
wrote to Mr. Odiorne, at Cincinnati, requesting him to send $250 
worth of seeds to Chattanooga, and a similar quantity to Knox- 
ville; which he did. Since then a contribution of seeds to a like 
amount has been generously made by Mr. David Landreth, of this 
city, and forwarded to Knoxville, Adams' Express conveying 
it free of charge to Cincinnati. The difficulty of sending bulky 
articles is such, that these garden seeds are particularly accept- 
able just now. We may mention here that a large box of 
articles of women's clothing, &c, given by various benevolent 
persons, has been forwarded by the Chairman of the Committee 
on Collections over the Pa. Central Railroad and the connecting 
roads, free of freight to Cincinnati ; and that further contributions 
of blankets, flannels, brown sheetings, Lancaster ginghams, shoes, 
felt hats, women's garments, trimmings, &c. &c, are needed, and 
may be sent (marked E. T. R. A., Knoxville) to Messrs. J. B. 
Lippincott & Co., No. 715 Market Street. 

After various delays we finally reached Knoxville on the 
evening of the 14th inst., and the next day we had a conference 
of three hours with the officers of the East Tennessee Relief 
Association. We found them highly respectable and worthy gen- 
tlemen, every way suitable to assist in carrying out the objects of 
our Association. They will organize such a plan of relief that 
the goods will be impartially distributed among the different 
counties with due regard to the wants as well as to the loyalty 



12 

of applicants. A part will be sold at cost and the proceeds 
reinvested. 

Before taking leave of these gentlemen, we read, and left in 
the hands of the President the following letter, which we hope 
will meet with the approval of the contributors to our fund. 

Loudon, March 14th, 1864. 
Rev. and Dear Sir : — 

Thinking that after our arrival at Knoxville we might not have time to 
prepare a memorandum of the views of the Pennsylvania Relief Association 
for East Tennessee in regard to the distribution of their supplies, we take 
advantage of a detention at this point to do so in advance. 

The motives which have influenced the contributors to our fund are of a 
twofold character : First, to testify in the unmistakable language of deeds 
to their admiration for the fidelity of the people of East Tennessee to the 
flag of their country under the hardest trials ; and, secondly, to perform an 
act of Christian charity. 

We are well assured that the East Tennessee Relief Association, of which 
you, sir, are the honored President, are actuated by similar patriotic and 
humane feelings in undertaking to co-operate with us in this labor of love ; 
and accordingly it is rather with a view of placing on record our wishes in 
this matter than with any idea of trammelling you in your good work, that we 
respectfully recommend the following plan for the distribution of the pro- 
visions, seeds, clothing, and other necessaries now on their way to you, and 
hereafter to be forwarded. 

First, in accordance with the suggestion of your agent, Mr. Hazen, with 
whom we conferred in Cincinnati, we would advise that these supplies should 
be sold, and not given away, in all cases where the applicants are able to 
purchase ; and that even when sold a preference should be given in the order 
to be enumerated below. 

Second, that Union families who have suffered at the hands of the rebels 
on account of their loyalty should have the first and largest portion. After 
them other families who have adhered throughout to the Federal Government. 
Next, such as, whatever their past conduct, do now adhere to the same ; and, 
lastly, to the old men, women, and children of such families as now have 
representatives in the so-called Confederate army. In our view, no part of 
this bounty was intended for secessionists of the fighting age. 

In conclusion, we would suggest that a regular record should be kept by 
your Association of the course which these supplies shall take, with a view of 



13 

ultimately embodying its results iu a report for the satisfaction of the con- 
tributors to the fund. 

Hoping that the work which our two associations have undertaken in com- 
mon, may tend to draw together by the ties of love your people and our peo- 
ple, and to show to the world that while the loyal men .of these United States 
of America are determined to crush rebellion, they are more than ever united 
at heart, 

We have the honor to subscribe ourselves, 

Dear sir, yours with much respect, 

FRED. COLLINS, 
LLOYD P. SMITH, 
Commissioners of the Pennsylvania Relief Asso. of East Tennessee. 

Rev. Thomas W. Humes, President of the East Tennessee Relief Associa- 
tion, Knoxville, Tennessee. 

On our return to Nashville we found our goods there unload- 
ing on the levee, and we left them in charge of Dr. Kogers, of 
East Tennessee, Col. Donaldson assuring us again that they should 
go forward on the first opportunity. This promise has since been 
redeemed, as we learn by a telegram from Governor Johnson, 
who had been good enough to assure us of his approval and co- 
operation, in an interview we had with him at Cincinnati : and 
the first shipment has arrived safely at Knoxville. 

Such is a brief narrative of what your commissioners have 
done during their absence of less than three weeks. In that time 
they have travelled about 2500 miles ; they have forwarded con- 
siderable supplies, and made arrangements for the transmission of 
more ; they have put themselves in personal communication with 
the East Tennessee Eelief Association, of Knoxville, and been 
instrumental in organizing associations in Cincinnati and Nash- 
ville for the benefit of refugees ; at the same time they have 
acquired such information of the state of things in the region 
now, unhappily for itself, the seat of war, as cannot fail to stimu- 
late the interest already felt in the faithful but unfortunate people 
of East Tennessee and the surrounding region. 

Your commissioners were not prepared to find the inhabitants 



14 

of that mountain country so generally and so unconditionally 
loyal as they proved to be. With these men, devotion to the 
Union is not a mere sentiment, it is a passion. For the Union 
they will give up their property, their liberty, their lives ; and 
what is harder yet, they will sacrifice, if necessary, even their 
lifelong prejudices. What a lesson to us of the North ! 

East Tennessee, in proportion to its population, has furnished 
more than twice as many men to the Federal government as any 
other section of the United States. The Colonel of the Third Ten- 
nessee Infantry stated that he had in his regiment 886 men, all 
but one native born Tennesseeans. He estimates that there are 
now in the Union army 21,000 men from East Tennessee, 2000 
from Middle Tennessee, and 3500 from West Tennessee ; and 
while from the whole State 45,000 or 50,000 have entered the 
Kebel army, only 4000 or 5000 of that number are from East 
Tennessee, and they mostly unwilling conscripts. From Anderson 
County there are now 1262 men in the Federal army, the ordi- 
nary vote of the county being about 1100, and that on the ques- 
tion of secession 1375. Sevier County polled, according to Col. 
Houk, 1632 for Union and ''ne'er a vote against it." 

In January, 1862, a Dr. B. went home secretly from Kentucky 
and brought North 700 men, who are now in the Union ranks. 
They walked 200 miles by night. On the 17th April, 1862, 1002 
undertook to escape North, having only 75 or 80 guns, mostly 
fowling pieces, in the whole " crowd," as one of them termed it. 
When they got to Powell's Valley they were intercepted by four 
companies of rebels, well armed. A fight ensued, in which three 
or four were killed on each side, and 423 of our men were taken 
prisoners. 

Even now this process of evasion from within the Rebel lines 
is going on. An instance came under our own notice at Cleve- 
land, a point on the road from Chattanooga to Knoxville, which 
illustrates the feeling of the people. Being detained by an acci- 
dent, we got out of the cars and entered into conversation with a 



15 

fine-looking young man, dressed neatly in homespun, from Clay 
County, North Carolina, who had just enlisted in a Tennessee 
regiment. He " wanted to get revenge out of those rascals that 
made him lay out two years in the cold mountains." He and his 
companions " would have fought the rebel raids," but they were 
afraid of bringing destruction on the settlements. He said the 
rebels would handcuff their conscripts and take them down south 
and put them in forts where they could not get out. Some Union 
recruiting officers are now in the woods getting recruits. 

But not only has the loyalty of East Tennessee and the sur- 
rounding country been proved by the extraordinary numbers 
who have forced their way against every obstacle to the Union 
standards, but the conduct of such as remained at home and the 
number who were imprisoned, despoiled of their property, hung 
and shot for their Union sentiments, gives splendid evidence of 
their unwavering fidelity to the General Government. "For 
more than eighteen months," said Mr. R., of Knoxville, "I never 
closed my doors at night without serious apprehensions lest before 
morning I should be roused from my bed, arrested, and carried 
off to prison. When I heard a rap at the door in the evening, 
while sitting with my family around me, my wife would say, 
" David, don't go to the door ; perhaps it is some one to arrest 
you I" From his parlor window he had often witnessed men 
hanging by the neck who had given offence to the rebel authori- 
ties. Union men did not dare to express their sentiments even 
in their own houses without seeing that the doors and windows 
were closed, and they were not allowed to congregate even to the 
number of two or three in the streets. The serious aspect and 
tone of voice which we noticed in nearly all we met with during 
our journey, are accounted for by the prolonged anxiety which 
the reign of terror had caused. 

We of the North, on the other hand, have just reason to be 
proud that, in the midst of a civil war, by which men's passions 
are violently agitated, the constitutional freedom of speech and 



16 

of the press — a freedom which leaves room for argument and 
reason to assert themselves — this first of all blessings, has never 
been seriously interfered with. Moral influences, and not brute 
force, are what we rely on to convince those whose judgment 
has unhappily been perverted on the questions of the day. 

At last this long-suffering people saw Burnside's columns ad- 
vance to their relief, and in September, 1863, the flag of the 
United States was once more unfurled in Knoxville. The occa- 
sion was one long to be remembered. As if by magic, the long- 
concealed Union flags were brought forth, and the cherished 
symbol waved in all parts of the town. The people poured into 
Knoxville from distances of five to twenty miles on foot, on 
horseback, and in wagons, bringing with them in baskets the 
little delicacies which they had stored away, to greet the United 
States soldiers on their arrival. In one instance, a Baptist 
clergyman, living about nine miles from Knoxville, heard at 11 
o'clock at night of the arrival of our advance-guard. He rose, 
dressed himself, and started immediately to communicate the glad 
tidings to his neighbors ; and they, catching his spirit, did like- 
wise, and from a distance of eight to ten miles they flocked into 
Knoxville, arriving there before sunrise. A refugee whom we 
met in the cars returning to his home, told us that his mother 
went eighteen miles on horseback to Knoxville, "just a purpose 
to see Burnside's army." It may not be improper to remark in 
this place, and, indeed, it is only just to do so, that General Burn- 
side has won the love and respect of the East Tennesseeans in a 
peculiar degree, from the considerate and impartial manner in 
which he exercised his rule amongst them, and the signal ability 
with which he conducted the military and civil affairs of his de- 
partment. After his recall, and when our army was reduced to 
the greatest straits for food, some of the citizens waited upon 
General Foster, and requested him, if it became necessary either 
to send away the people or to evacuate the country, to pursue 
the former course. 



17 

A refugee farmer whom we met returning to his home, told us 
that if secession had succeeded, he would have left all, and re- 
mained at the North. " I would rather protect the government 
than protect my property. If I had one bushel of corn, I would 
be glad to give one-half of it to the Union men. We could do a 
heap of good if we could only stay there, and raise truck for the 
army." 

At a point between Bridgeport and Chattanooga we were de- 
tained by another accident, and, getting out of the cars, we ap- 
proached a group of refugees decently, but poorly dressed, hud- 
dling round a fire. There were three families, thirteen in all. 
They were going to Vincennes, Indiana, where they had friends. 
One old man, dressed in homespun, with a straw hat on his head, 
said, simply, " All's gone." He might have added, and with more 
truth than did Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, " save honor." 
He lived eleven miles east of Knoxville, and when Burnside 
arrived, he went to Knoxville and volunteered, remaining five 
weeks in camp. When the time came for him to be mustered 
in, he was rejected on account of age, being in his 67th year ! 

He said, " The Union soldiers injured me more than the Eebs 
did — they did not even give me a receipt. I went and showed 
them my corn, and told them to take it, or the others would get it. 
The best farmers hain't got thirty bushels to-day. A great many 
of my neighbors have come away, and more are coming. I didn't 
know when I left home where to get a bushel of corn for $5." 
He said, however, that there was a " right smart" crop of wheat 
sowed, and that some would make out corn to plant. Nobody in 
his neighborhood was getting rations from government. At 
Knoxville, however, some families were drawing rations from 
the Quartermaster. 

Col. Baxter told us that the daughter of a Mr. Carey, a wealthy 
gentleman of the neighborhood, came to Knoxville on horseback 
a few days before our arrival, bringing some forage with her, and 
when it was exhausted, she was obliged to go home. 
2 



18 

Such is the destitution of feed and forage in East Tennessee, 
that 10,000 animals belonging to the army are now dead at the 
front, and the farmers are compelled to let their horses and cattle 
die. The few we saw were emaciated in the extreme. The barns 
we passed on the road were perfectly empty ; no fences were to be 
seen, no hogs, no poultry, nothing but the bare land. Flour, of 
poor quality, is worth at Knoxville, §30 a barrel ; coffee $1 50 a 
pound, in Federal currency, and other articles in proportion. 

At Chattanooga we met Capt. Thos. A. Jones, of the 2d regi- 
ment Tennessee Cavalry, who was going to his home, eighteen 
miles east of Knoxville, on furlough, because his wife had writ- 
ted him so strongly about her sufferings, and those of his chil- 
dren. Tears came into his eyes, when we told him of our mission. 

The destitution is not confined to any one class. The most 
thrifty and hitherto well-to-do, are involved in the common ruin. 
In Blount County, south of Knoxville, there is a settlement of 
members of the Society of Friends. The day we arrived at 
Knoxville, one of them, a Mr. Jones, went to Col. Baxter, and 
said — 

"Colonel, can you tell me where the Quartermaster lives?" 

" What do you want?" 

" I want to get assistance ; I have nothing to eat." 

" Are you in that condition?" 

" Yes, we are all in that condition." 

They were previously very well off. They had never held 
skwes. 

There is another Quaker settlement at Newmarket, about 
twenty-five miles northeast of Knoxville, not quite so large as 
that in Blount County, but in a still w-Qrse condition. The Hon. 
Horace Maynard told an anecdote which is very significant of 
their sentiments. About eight or ten years ago there were two 
candidates for the legislature " stumping" the district in company. 
One of them was rich, but had been a negro trader. After mak- 
ing his speech, the other candidate mounted the platform, and, 



19 

pulling out of his coat pocket a pair of handcuffs, held them up 
to the audience, saying, "This is the way he made his money." 
The negro trader lost every vote. 

On communicating the foregoing facts, immediately after our 
return, to members of the Society of Friends in this city, a meet- 
ing of Friends was called, and a committee appointed to collect 
funds, and apply the same for the relief of their destitute brethren 
in East Tennessee. At the same meeting liberal subscriptions 
were made for this special object, though many had previously 
contributed to the fund. 

Such are the people whose mute appeal is now made to the 
S}'mpathies and aid of this city of brotherly love, and such are 
some of the indications of their extreme destitution which met 
the eyes and ears of your Commissioners. But perhaps the 
strongest and saddest evidence of the overwhelming losses of 
this people is presented by the great numbers now slowly and 
painfully making their way from their once happy homes to 
the North in search of bread. At Nashville, Dr. Eead, of the 
Sanitary Commission, told us that over 9000 refugees from dif- 
ferent parts of the South, mostly old men, women, and children, 
had passed through that city during the last two months. Their 
numbers are increasing daily, so that, during the week before we 
arrived, it was estimated that 2500 had reached Nashville. The 
same exodus is going on, and for the same reasons, throughout 
the whole southwestern country. There are now 3000 white 
refugees at Cairo, 1000 at Little Kock, 1900 at Memphis, 1000 
at Helena, and many more at other points on the Mississippi 
Eiver waiting government transportation. It is the wise policy 
of our military commanders to furnish rations, when necessary 
and practicable, to such as take the oath of allegiance, and also 
transportation to the Ohio River, to those who desire to go 
North. The happiest effects result from this humane treatment. 
One rebel deserter said that his heart never melted towards the 
Federal government until he learned that it was feeding his wife 



20 

and children. A rebel officer said be found it impossible to 
fight against such a government. So the traveller in the fable 
willingly threw off his cloak under the genial rays of the sun, 
though he had only wrapped it closer around him, when the 
wind tried to force it from his grasp. At Chattanooga we saw a 
large crowd of women waiting their turn at the provost marshal's 
to obtain orders for rations from the Quartermaster. Five thou- 
sand rations a day are issued at that point to the inhabitants. 

Undoubtedly, many families will return to their homes as soon 
as they can possibly do so. But meantime, their sufferings on 
the road are painful to witness. We visited, at Nashville, the 
barracks set aside by government for the refugees, and found 
them full of sick, poorly clad, and dispirited women and chil- 
dren. They were from East Tennessee, Western North Caro- 
lina, Northern Georgia, and Northern Alabama. A woman 
named Illit, from Fannon County, Georgia, had been two months 
on the road. In one room, a Mrs. McAfee, from Clay County, 
North Carolina, was standing in much distress of mind, beside 
the bed on which her husband lay dangerously ill. She said 
they came away because the " Eebs" took away everything from 
them, and were about to force her husband, aged 54, and her son, 
aged 17, into the army. Her son enlisted in our army the very 
day he reached Nashville. In another room sat a poor woman 
by the stove, who had lost her reason in consequence of her mis- 
fortunes. In one corner a woe-begone mother sat up in bed, sur- 
rounded by four children, all five sick with the measles. 

Many refugees did not even know of the government barracks ; 
and Col. Donaldson, the Chief Quartermaster, told us that he had 
seen some decent looking families, including delicate females, 
ill-clad, who had sat all night on the levee, with the thermometer 
below freezing point. Again, the 9th Tennessee cavalry took in 
some refugees who did not know where to go, and gave up their 
own tents to them. 

The emigration will continue for a long time to come, even 



21 

when the pressure of necessity is withdrawn. Mr. Read, the 
agent of the Sanitary Commission at Chattanooga, remarked that 
a great many about there have new and more correct ideas re- 
specting the advantages of northern society, northern schools, and 
the comforts of life to be enjoyed in the free States. It was very 
questionable, however, to your Commissioners, whether, in the case 
of loyal families in general, and those of East Tennessee in par- 
ticular, it was desirable to encourage this emigration. Judge 
Patterson, of Nashville, the President of the Refugee Relief Asso- 
ciation organized in that city at our suggestion, himself a refugee 
from East Tennessee, was emphatic upon that point. He con- 
tended that it is important to keep the loyal population at home on 
account of their labor and their votes. They are wanted to re- 
organize the State on the old basis of harmony with the Federal 
government. 

The difficulties, however, in the way of forwarding supplies 
are almost insuperable, as was explained in the first part of this 
Report ; and nothing will give permanent relief to East Tennes- 
see, except the construction of the remaining link of railroad 
between Cincinnati and Knoxville, as recommended in President 
Lincoln's first annual message. On this subject, the annexed 
Address to the President of the United States by the East Ten- 
nessee Relief Association of Knoxville is so clear and conclusive, 
that it is only necessary to add that your Commissioners entirely 
agree in the opinion that the government ought to undertake the 
work at once, thus literally following the wise counsel of Polo- 
nius : 

" The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.'''' 

If the President's recommendation had been carried into effect 
by Congress, East Tennessee would have been reclaimed a year 
before it actually came into our possession, and instead of a desert 
we would have gained a smiling country full of inestimable sup- 



■ 22 

plies. Even now the saving of transportation would in one year 
repay the cost of building the road. 

But, whether this road be constructed or not, the existing war 
is clearly destined to introduce northern men, northern ideas, and 
northern enterprise into the border States, and as our military 
lines advance, throughout the* whole South. Major Walsh, of 
the 11th Illinois infantry, stated that during the eleven months 
he remained in Davidson County, Tennessee — the county in 
which Nashville is situated — there were thirty-one marriages 
between men of his regiment and southern women. Soldiers 
discharged for disability, etc., remain, to a large extent, in the 
South, and are to be found scattered on the plantations. A 
planter in Gallatin said he had a discharged soldier to work for 
him, and he would rather have him than any four negroes he had 
ever had. Mr. Johnson, the Sanitary Commission's agent at Lou- 
don, remarked that many of our soldiers would settle about there. 
"We dined with a planter near Loudon who had employed a dis- 
charged soldier to work for him, and who was perfectly aston- 
ished at his steady application to labor. He said the soldier did 
more work in one day than any negro he had ever had in five. 
East Tennessee, with its fertile lands, its rich mines, and valuable 
water-power, presents a fine field for the application of northern 
labor and capital, and when this calamity is overpast, and a direct 
railroad communication with the North is secured, it will prosper 
as never before. 

Especially will this be the case, when the incubus of slavery 
is thrown off; and that it will be thrown off by the vote of Ten- 
nessee herself, your Commissioners saw no reason to doubt. It is 
believed that a majority would be given against it to-day, if a 
vote could be taken. A great change of sentiment is now going 
on both in Kentucky and Tennessee. One Kentuckian, owning 
twenty-three negroes and 1100 acres of land, said he would make 
more by free labor than he ever did with slave labor. A mer- 
chant made the same remark ; so did a lawyer from Lancaster. 



23 

Col. N. declared that any politician who now stands up for 
slavery is a fool. There are seventeen National Union League 
Councils in Tennessee, and their members are bitterly opposed to 
the institution. In most cases slaves in Nashville are now paid 
wages — say $10 or $12 per month. 

At Chattanooga we saw a negro regiment, the 14th U. S. C. T., 
Col. T. J. Morgan, of Indiana, commanding. It had been raised 
in Gallatin, Tennessee, "a regular secession hole," as it was 
described to us, and numbered 950 men, every one of whom, save 
eight, had been a slave. Their camp was the cleanest we had 
ever seen, and their appearance and drill unsurpassed. The 
colonel has full confidence in their fighting qualities, and one of 
the captains remarked that they could not fail in action with such 
stuff as their men are made of. The chaplain teaches them three 
hours a day, and many can read and write. The sight of that 
regiment on dress parade, with every head bare to heaven as the 
chaplain lifted up his voice and prayed that they might be strong 
and quit themselves like men in the day of battle, was one never 
to be forgotten. Adjoining their camp was that of the 42d U. S. 
C. T., a regiment now forming and containing about 150 men. 
The contrast between the slouching gait and slovenly appearance 
of the raw recruits, some of whom still had on their plantation 
clothes, and the soldierly bearing of the disciplined men, was 
very marked. 

At Knoxville, at wealthy gentleman, Col. B., told us he had 
freed twenty of his negroes last week, and would hereafter employ 
paid labor. Some rich secessionists in that city have taken the 
oath, and it is believed, sincerely. At Nashville, we saw a crowd 
of " Butternuts" who had come to town to take the oath. One of 
them said they had complied with all the requisitions of the United 
States government up to that point, and now they wanted to take 
the oath and buy some coffee, sugar, and other supplies, the mili- 
tary authorities very properly requiring all persons in disloyal dis- 
tricts to go through that purifying and wholesome process. 



24 

A man from Clay Co., N. C, wfyom we saw with his family at the 
depot at Chattanooga, said, " The Southern men think they're 
whipped, and badly whipped. There's a heap of men there that 
hold slaves that say they don't care, and the North may come as 
soon as they mind to, and take their slaves. About one hundred 
of us had our little houses in the mountains. "We lived on game 
for two years to avoid the rebel conscription. We don't like Gov- 
ernor Vance. A great many are leaving for the North. After the 
war the rebel leaders can't stay there. Macon, Cherokee, Henderson, 
Transylvania, and Clay Counties are pretty much Union. Those 
who had been forced into rebellion are coming back. Nearly all the 
negroes have run off this way ; the rest have been taken South." 
He himself was going to Kentucky, though he had no friends 
there and no means — the government furnishing him transporta- 
tion and rations. He was unable to read, but was a fine-looking 
man, with a bright eye and clear complexion. 

His testimony that those who had been forced into the rebel 
ranks are coming back as fast as they can find an opportunity to 
desert, was confirmed in so many and in such unexpected ways, 
and there was such an absence of evidence to contradict it, that 
we were forced to believe that such was the fact. A gentleman, 
a Union man, who had remained at Knoxville during the rebel 
rule and conversed a good deal with the rank and file passing 
backwards and forwards through that town, gave it as his opinion 
that two-thirds of the private soldiers were Union men at heart. 
Dr. Blankinship, a lifelong abolitionist of Tennessee, estimates 
the proportion of the disaffected at the same figure. He said if 
the Amnesty Proclamation were properly distributed, in three 
months there would not be 5000 men in Johnston's army. Col. 
Houk said if all coercion were removed, one-third of the rank 
and file of the rebels would come over and do their best to re- 
move the stigma which would rest upon them. Major Walsh, of 
the 11th Illinois, put the number as high as two-thirds at least. 
A deserter from Dalton, who had belonged to the 24th Texas, said 



25 

they had not half enough of anything to eat. "Two-thirds at 
least of the rebel army are ready to come over. In fact not 
more than one out of ten of the rank and file are secessionists at 
heart." When he came away there were not more than a dozen 
men left in his company. He had seen eighteen or twenty of his 
company in Nashville. A resident of Knoxville said that a com- 
pany in Palmer's N. C. Kegiment had an election, and the " secesh" 
candidate only got six votes. 

And, really, when we had traversed Middle and East Tennessee, 
and seen for ourselves what an immense and magnificent country 
has been conquered by our arms ; when we gazed on the im- 
pregnable fortifications of Nashville, Murfreesborough, Chatta- 
nooga, and Knoxville, and saw the innumerable stockades, earth- 
works, and camps which line the railroads ; the bridges that 
had been reconstructed, the steamboats that had been built, and 
the railroads that had been repaired ; when we beheld the levee 
at Nashville covered with 30,000 tons of government freight — in 
fact all the resources of the North poured out to crush rebellion 
and used with great efficiency — we were not surprised that any 
man of common sense should conclude that secession is a losing 
game. Just as soon as a new base of supplies can be established 
at Chattanooga, our armies ought to sweep everything before 
them. Nothing during the war has been more admirable than the 
tenacity with which our troops have held East Tennessee, in the 
face of scarcity amounting almost to famine. At one time the 
soldiers were reduced to a ration of an ear of corn a day in Knox- 
ville. 

The first supplies which reached that town were those sent by 
the Sanitary Commission across the mountains in wagons. And 
here it affords your commissioners great pleasure to bear their 
unqualified testimony to the value of the work which the Sanitary 
Commission are doing at the seat of war. At every important 
point we made the acquaintance of the agents of the Commission 5 
and returning from Knoxville we travelled thirty-six hours in a 



26 

hospital train furnished by them with comfortable beds and a 
car for preparing food. Everywhere we found the gentlemen of 
the Commission obliging, experienced, and active men, and we 
were convinced of the inestimable value of their services at the 
front, and especially after a battle. At Chattanooga, the agent is 
now planting 100 acres in vegetables ; and, as mentioned above, 
he has undertaken to distribute early garden seeds to the neigh- 
bors on our behalf. The Christian Commission is also doing 
an excellent work, cheering the hearts of the soldiers, and thus 
verifying the truth that " man does not live by bread alone." 

The Eefugee Eelief Commission of Ohio, organized at Cincinnati 
through our agency, also commends itself to your sympathies 
and aid, as well as the one at Nashville, which may in like manner 
be considered as an offshoot from our own society. The number 
of refugees now being conveyed by the government to the various 
towns on the Ohio Eiver, is daily increasing; and the situation of 
many of the helpless women and children among them is truly 
pitiable. The objects of all three associations are entirely simi- 
lar, and the good understanding and cooperation which now 
exist will doubtless continue to the end. The Cairo Eelief Asso- 
ciation, another excellent society, has issued a striking address to 
which we would call attention. (See Appendix E.) 

In conclusion, we may congratulate ourselves that Philadelphia, 
which, from her geographical position and her history, ought to 
be and is as devotedly Union a city as exists in the United States, 
has been the first to set the example of sympathy and material 
aid to our suffering and loyal brethren in East Tennessee. 
We are persuaded that the moral effect of this movement in 
strengthening a true Union feeling between the North and the 
South, the East and the West, will be most salutary. The Eev. Mr. 
Humes remarked that when the people heard of our approach with 
supplies for their relief, men's hearts seemed to revive. 

There is a great work before us. We must not confine ourselves 
,to East Tennessee. There remains yet very much land to be 



27 

possessed; and, as our armies advance, the whole South will 
require the fostering care and material aid of the North. The 
welcome given to the Prodigal Son, in the parable, even " when 
he was yet a great way off'.'' teaches a profound lesson, singularly 
applicable at the present time. 

FREDERIC COLLINS, 
LLOYD P. SMITH. 

Commissioners. 

Philadelphia, March 31, 1S64. 

I fully approve of the above Report, and desire here to return 
my warmest and most sincere thanks to my colleagues on this 
Committee for their labors on behalf of my suffering people, and 
for their lucid exposition of the present condition of East Ten- 
nessee. N. G. TAYLOR, 

of East Tennessee. 
Philadelphia, April 2, 1864. 



APPENDIX 



A. 

ADDRESS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN 
BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF EAST TENNESSEE. 

Knoxville, Tens., February 9th, 1864. 
To His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

President of the United States: — 

Dear Sir : "We have the honor to make known to your Excellency 
that on the 6th instant, in this city, an association of loyal citizens was 
organized, entitled " The East Tennessee Relief Association." The 
objects of said association are definitely set forth in the second article of 
its constitution, which declares : — 

" The objects of this association will be to contribute, as far as possible, 
to the relief of the people of East Tennessee, who are now suffering 
under the effects of a protracted war ; by receiving and dispensing any 
donations or contributions, whether of moneys or supplies, that may be 
appropriated for that purpose by individuals, associations, or corpora- 
tions ; by aiding the people, in every legitimate way, in securing from 
the authorities, both civil and military, Federal and State, proper pro- 
tection in the resumption and prosecution of their industrial pur- 
suits, and in obtaining from the Government more speedy and satisfac- 
tory compensation for their property that may have been destroyed by 
authority or appropriated by the army as necessary for the public ser- 
vice; and, furthermore, it shall be the object of this association to 
encourage and support, by every means in its power, any and every pro- 
ject or enterprise calculated to open up to the people of East Tennessee 
the channels of communication with the markets of our more prosperous 
sister States." 

By a resolution adopted by the said association on the 6th instant, 
the undersigned were appointed a committee in behalf of the association 
and of the people of East Tennessee, " to address the President of the 



30 

United States, and, through him, both houses of Congress, on the con- 
dition and wants of the people of East Tennessee, and ask their atten- 
tion to the necessity of some action on the part of the Government for 
their relief." 

In former times and under ordinary circumstances it would hardly have 
been deemed proper to address your Excellency in this extraordinary 
way ; but when it is considered that the people of Tennessee, by 
reason of the rebellion, are now without representation in either branch 
of Congress, and that they have no State Legislature through which to 
communicate with Congress, we will be warranted, we trust, in approach- 
ing the Government, through your Excellency, in something like an origi- 
nal capacity. In attempting, therefore, the discharge of the duty imposed 
upon us by the association we represent, we feel that it is hardly neces- 
sary to recount to your Excellency the painfully interesting history of 
the people of East Tennessee since the outbreak of the rebellion ; though 
a brief recital of their wants and sufferings may not be out of place. 

In the beginning of the pending civil strife East Tennessee, by an over- 
whelming majority, declared against the rebellion. From her geographi- 
cal position, her railroad communications, her trade and social inter- 
course had been mainly with the Southern States. Her domestic insti- 
tutions and social organization were the same as theirs or nearly assimi- 
lated thereto, and, according to the commonly received opinion, her 
future success and full development were identified with and dependent 
upon the growth and prosperity of the Smith. Nevertheless, when the 
scheme of corrupt and ambitious men to dismember the National Govern- 
ment was fully disclosed, her people did not stop to consider their local 
or pecuniary interests. Their innate love of country rose above the nar- 
row and selfish considerations that controlled the people and dictated 
the policy of other States. Appeals to local interests and sectional pre- 
judices and hatreds were alike unheeded ; and, in her isolation from all 
the loyal States, and amidst the jeers and threatened violence of a South- 
ern mob, her people stood firm in their determination to maintain the 
Federal Constitution and the Union of States existing under it. In the 
second and last election in Tennessee upon this question, on the 8th of 
June, 1861, out of an aggregate vote of about 48,000 in East Tennessee, 
only 14, tOO votes were polled in favor of separation, and many of these 
were the illegal votes of rebel soldiers ; and even after the pretended 
ordinance of separation had been passed and formally announced, the 
loj-al people of East Tennessee, through a convention of their delegates 
at Greenville, Tenn., on the 20th of June, 1861, unanimously resolved, 
"That the action of our State Legislature in passing the so-called 'De- 
claration of Independence,' and in forming the ' Military League' with 



31 

the Confederate States, and in adopting other acts looking to a separa- 
tion of the State of Tennessee from the Government of the United States, 
is unconstitutional and illegal, and, therefore, not binding upon us as 
loyal citizens." 

But the trusted leaders of the people in the Middle and Western Divi- 
sions of the State, at an early day, yielded to Southern clamor. The 
Executive and Legislature betrayed the trusts confided to them. Five 
millions of money were appropriated for the purpose of forcing Tennessee 
into the Southern Confederacy. Through the patronage and power thus 
acquired, some men were bought, others intimidated. The press was 
muzzled, and free discussion suppressed, and, by such means, Tennessee, 
which less than four months before, had given a majority of 60,000 in 
favor of the Union, was, through the mere form and mockery of a popular 
election, declared in a state of insurrection against the United States. 
Still, loyal East Tennesseeans refused to acknowledge the validity of the 
act of separation. With unwavering devotion they still adhered to the 
"Old Government." Through the valley of East Tennessee ran one of 
the most important railroads in the Confederacy — connecting the South- 
west with the capital of the Rebel Government. Geographically and 
strategetically considered, this road was essential to the maintenance of 
the Confederacy. The 35,000 Union voters inhabiting this section, mu- 
tually encouraging each other's patriotism, and strengthening a feeling of 
nationality in all, constituted a dangerous element in a very important 
locality. Prudence called for vigilance on the part of the rebel author- 
ities, and malignity demanded revenge. Large armies were quartered 
among us. For more than two years the Federal Government was ejected 
from East Tennessee. Union citizens were disarmed — arrested without 
warrant, and for alleged military offences, imprisoned at the pleasure of 
petty military tyrants in violation of all law — forced to take oaths against 
their consciences and in derogation of their allegiance to the United States 
— taxed with illegal costs to support corrupt officials ; their property 
seized for public and for individual uses. Their fields were laid waste — 
in some instances houses were burned over the heads of families as a 
punishment for their loyalty ; and in other instances, not a, few, men 

patriotically sealed their devotion to their country with their life-blood 

either butchered by a lawless soldiery, or officially murdered by a military 
court. 

Amid this accumulation of wrongs and oppressions, being for the time 
hopelessly removed from, and cut off from the Government to which they 
looked for protection, the people were unable, in their unarmed condition, 
to organize anything like an adequate resistance to the force always present 
among them. Smarting under these wrongs, they determined to be free. 



32 

By small companies they gradually and stealthily withdrew from their 
cherished homes, leaving their property and families behind, sought the 
Federal army in the neighboring State of Kentucky, organized into regi- 
ments, and claimed the high privilege of returning with the flag of their 
country, to relieve their oppressed families and friends from the galling 
tyranny of Confederate rule. While some eight or ten thousand East 
Tennesseeans, by means of conscription and other appliances, were induced 
to enter the rebel service — at least fifteen to eighteen thousand loyalists, 
being one-half the loyal voting population, stole their way through rebel 
pickets, and across the Cumberland Mountains, in search of that emblem 
of protection — the Stars and Stripes — to which they and their families 
still looked for relief. 

This much we have deemed it proper to say in justice to our people, 
although the recital of their wrongs may be to your Excellency but the 
repetition of an oft-told tale. Were this all, and did the suffering stop 
here, no murmur would now be heard to trouble the ear of Government. 
But the patriotism of our people, and the tyranny of the rebels have, 
naturally enough, co-operated to impoverish our country. Most of those 
who entered the armies, both Federal and Rebel, were laboring men, and 
thus more than half the ordinary labor of the country was withdrawn 
from the common industrial pursuits. The productions suffered a cor- 
responding diminution, while the demand was increased by the pressing 
necessities of the Rebel Government. In the fall of 1861, for instance, 
East Tennessee furnished over 60,000 hogs to support the rebellion. In 
1862, the rebel authorities were inexorable for further supplies. Every 
available hog was hunted out and taken. The products of our farms 
were seized wherever found. The stock to which we looked for future 
increase was destroyed without stint, and heavy drafts were made upon 
the citizens for clothing and blankets for the soldiery. The blockade of 
the Southern coast, so disastrous to the Confederacy, embraced us also 
in its ruinous effects, and deprived us of most of the comforts and neces- 
saries of life to which we had been accustomed. In a word, we suffered 
all the ills of isolation, depopulation, and oppression. The hope of our 
people was meanwhile in the coming of the Union army. Finally, about 
the 1st of September of last year, that army came, but in its hurried 
and successful march across the mountains, over steep and rugged roads, 
it could not bring supplies a distance of one hundred and eighty miles 
from its depot of provisions. The advent of the Union troops was hailed 
with joy, and the broken and crushed spirits of Union men and women 
rallied with new life as they beheld the old flag coming once more to 
signalize the authority of the government of their fathers. But these 
troops found us with a reduced crop, the product of less than one-half 



33 

the ordinary labor of the country, and much of that, too, produced by 
the labor of women and children, whose tender hands had hitherto been 
unused to the sterner labors of the held. These troops required subsist- 
ence, and their necessities could not await the slow providence of com- 
missaries and quartermasters. They must needs take supplies wherever 
found, but the people, with hearts overflowing- with gratitude for their 
deliverance, gave up their scanty stocks without seeming to count the 
cost or consider the probabilities of payment. The country was regained, 
and for a time we had reason to believe that East Tennessee, from one 
extremity to the other, was about to be, if not already, restored to the 
authority and protection of the Federal Government, and that the native 
industry of our people, in conjunction with the opening of our communi- 
cations with the Northern markets, would soon restore us to a state of 
comparative comfort; but in this we were disappointed. Early in No. 
vember, the rebels under Longstreet, numbering at least 25,000, entering 
lower East Tennessee, began their march upon Knoxville, for the re- 
conquest of the whole of East Tennessee. The quick and unerring sa- 
gacity of General Grant saw the advantages which this division of rebel 
forces gave to the Federal army, and accordingly, by instructions to 
Gen. Burnside, who has carried with him, to whatever field of labor he 
may be assigned, the affection and gratitude of all loyal East Tennesseeans, 
the advance of Longstreet was facilitated. Knoxville was besieged. 
Soon afterwards, the country extending from Chattanooga to Knoxville, 
through which Longstreet came, was traversed by the Union forces 
under Gen. Sherman, to the amount of 25,000 men, and the two armies 
necessarily exhausted and laid waste the country through which they 
passed. As the army of Sherman advanced, that of Longstreet withdrew, 
and it still sullenly holds its position not more than thirty miles distant, 
and occupying the country to within five miles of this place. The two 
armies, amounting to not less than 50,000 men, with a very heavy pro- 
portion of cavalry, have drained and exhausted the whole of East Ten- 
nessee. Union men, upon the approach of the rebel army here, aban- 
doned their homes, and the more prominent rebel citizens, for the most 
part, have deserted their possessions within our lines, and sought safety 
with their friends. 

From what has been said, your Excellency will see that we are reduced 
to almost the last extremity of suffering and want. That part of Our 
labor not already in the army, cannot now be profitably employed in the 
midst of hostile demonstrations. Our stock, including cattle, hogs, and 
sheep, is well nigh gone, our horses have been taken by one government 
or the other, or stolen by stragglers or natural thieves, and our farms, 
in a great degree, have been left fenceless. It is impossible that the 
3 



34 

usual agricultural pursuits be resumed. Less than ten per cent., perhaps 
not more than five, of the usual breadth of wheat has been sown. No 
oats nor potatoes, or very little of either, have been left for seed the 
present season, and it is the opinion of the undersigned that, for the 
reasons above mentioned, not more than (if, indeed, so much as) twenty 
per cent, of the usual corn crop will be planted. Our meadows and corn- 
fields have been made desolate by the tread of armies ; homes have been 
rendered comfortless, until many of our citizens, tired of strife and de- 
spairing of peace and comfort, are abandoning the country and seeking 
elsewhere that protection which they have failed to obtain in the land of 
their birth. 

Against this tide of desolation we most respectfully and earnestly 
invoke the exerGise of all the powers with which the President and Con- 
gress are invested. We cannot believe that the conduct of a people who 
have endured so much in behalf of the government will fail to command 
its attention. We do not approach the government as mendicants, beg- 
ging alms. By the sweat of our brows we had provided bread for 
another year, but that supply, as before stated, was given up to the 
Union army. For the want of that supply our people are now suffering, 
and for it they have, in the main, received no equivalent. The necessi- 
ties of our army, and often the wants of the soldiers, have been so great 
that a large portion of the stock and provisions taken were taken by 
unauthorized persons, who, of course, gave no receipts or vouchers. 
Hundreds of families, heretofore blessed with an abundance of all the 
necessities and many of the comforts of life, have been reduced to almost 
absolute beggary, because of the privations imposed by the army. Many 
of these families are without money with which to replace the supplies, 
and, had they money, the supplies could not be found. Besides, it is too 
often the case that the receipts and vouchers given are irregular and 
informal, and such as no quartermaster will honor. 

The first remedy that the undersigned would respectfully suggest is a 
more speedy and prompt payment of the claims due to loyal citizens for 
property destroyed and supplies furnished — especially that some provi- 
sion be immediately made for the ready adjustment and payment of these 
irregular claims to which reference has been made. During the siege of 
Knoxville, for instance, the houses of many Union men were burned by 
order of the commanding General, yet the families of these men, house- 
less and homeless though they be, can obtain no satisfaction from the 
government, for the alleged want of authority in the quartermasters to 
pay such claims. The same may be said of irregular claims from all 
parts of East Tennessee. We would, therefore, most respectfully beg 
your Excellency to direct the issuance of such orders on the part of any 



35 

department of government having jurisdiction thereof, or to recommend 
the passage of such a law on the part of Congress as will secure the 
speedy payment of all such claims as those before mentioned. The 
prompt payment to the people of East Tennessee of the claims in their 
hands, and due, would do much to relieve their present wants. 

The second and, at the present time, the most important question that 
we would call to your Excellency's attention, is that of transportation. 
Had we money without limit, it would be all but little toward relieving 
the present wants of our people, for the purchase of supplies would profit 
us nothing unless we were supplied with the means of transportation. 

To bring supplies across the Cumberland Mountains by wagons or 
pack trains, even had we the facilities, would be next to impossible. The 
experience of the army is sufficient to demonstrate the impracticability of 
supplying a population of more than three hundred thousand by that 
means. The navigation of the Tennessee River is permanently ob- 
structed by the Muscle Shoals, which are not passable by boats of the 
lightest draught, except during extreme tides, and by this means we have 
no hope of relief. Nashville is now, and for some time to come must 
necessarily be, the depot of supplies upon which the immense armies 
operating in lower East Tennessee and Georgia must depend. The 
demands of this force will necessarily, to a great extent, exclude the 
citizens from the privilege of transportation. True, by means of the two 
railroads from Nashville — the one tapping the Tennessee at Decatur and 
the other at Bridgeport — supplies might be transported to the river ; 
but then we have no boats at our command, and even had we the boats, 
the upper Tennessee, the Holstein, the Clinch, and French Broad rivers 
are unreliable for navigation, and indeed are unnavigable for six months 
in the year. Besides, the route from Nashville to East Tennessee by 
way of the river is, to a considerable extent, parallel with the enemy's 
lines, and therefore subject to repeated raids from guerrillas, whose daring 
is never so much stimulated as by the prospect of food and raiment. 
While much might and should be accomplished by this route to alleviate 
the present wants of our people, the undersigned are fully convinced that, 
in view of the necessities of the army, sufficient facilities of transportation 
cannot be obtained to afford anything like reliable or permanent relief to 
the citizens of East Tennessee. Still, we trust the government will grant 
every possible privilege to our citizens, and extend to them every reason- 
able facility for the shipment by this route of necessary supplies. 

We beg your Excellency to bear in mind that our wants are not merely 
temporary, and that they will not cease with the advance of the army. 
From the want of seed, the great diminution of labor, and other causes 
above stated, our next crop will be far lighter than any preceding one. 



36 

From our exhausted pockets our farms, are again to be stocked before that 
plenty to which we have been accustomed again smiles upon us. While 
deeply impressed with a sense of present need, it is the future that 
most deeply concerns us. Under the most favorable direction of events, 
it is impossible for our people to obtain relief, of their own resources, 
before the harvest of 1865 has been gathered. Meanwhile, they must 
seek a communication, direct and sure, with the markets of our more 
prosperous sister States. That communication can now only be 
obtained through a direct railroad connection with Louisville and Cin- 
cinnati. The construction of such a railroad your Excellency, so early 
as the fall of 1861, had the sagacity to recommend to Congress as a 
necessary military work for the suppression of the rebellion, and had the 
recommendation of your Excellency then been adopted, East Tennessee, 
teeming with abundance, would have long since dropped like a ripe 
apple into the possession of the Government, instead of being finally 
captured at an expense of millions to the Government, and in an ex- 
hausted condition. The Union army, upon its arrival, would not only 
have found plenty, but would have been still in close communication 
with the plenty of the North. The transportation, or, rather, the means 
of transportation alone of the Army of the Ohio, with the losses neces- 
sarily incident thereto, has cost the Government not less than five mil- 
lions of dollars since the army left its place of rendezvous in Kentucky. 
Less than that sum, even with fully compensated labor, would have con- 
structed and equipped a railroad from Sanford, Kentucky, to this point, 
and the Army of the Ohio would now have been within twenty days' 
travel of its true base of supplies. That the immediate construction of 
this road is a military necessity is now apparent to every member of this 
army. The scanty rations of the soldier give evidence of the fact, and 
the dying animals that fall and perish by the way-side fully attest it. 
For the want of such a communication the army, by reason of the ex- 
hausted condition of the country, has been reduced to extraordinary 
straits, its energies have been well nigh paralyzed, and for some time past 
the chief problem has been that of self-support. With the opening of 
the road to Chattanooga, however, the condition of the army will be in 
a measure relieved ; but we would respectfully suggest that, in order to 
facilitate military operations from this base, it will be necessary not only 
to *>'i>phj the army, but to accumulate supplies from which to make 
future drafts. Impressed with these views, General Burnside and his 
successor, General Foster, have, we understand, both recommended the 
construction of the road above referred to as a military measure. By 
way of Nashville and Chattanooga, from Cincinnati to Knoxville, the 
distance is about five hundred and fifty miles, while by the route 



37 

proposed the distance between the same points is less than three 
hundred miles. The construction of this road could be effected in 
six mouths with the labor of the country emancipated by the war, and 
for the present needing discipline and employment. Already the roads 
projected by Louisville and Cincinnati have been extended in this direc- 
tion something over one hundred miles. Louisville, as we understand, 
is now engaged in extending her road from Lebanon to Stanford, and 
Cincinnati must necessarily push forward her line from Nicholasville to 
the same point, or lose the advantage, hitherto enjoyed, of the valuable 
trade of that productive region. The distance from Stanford to Knox- 
ville, by the most feasible route, is about one hundred and fifty miles. 
In her days of prosperity, East Tennessee, with an enterprise that was 
creditable to her people, undertook to fill up this link in one of the most 
important railway communications on the continent. Ten miles of the 
road, beginning at Knoxville, are already completed and in running 
order. Ten miles more are graded, the masonry complete, and the 
bridge across the Clinch River, twenty miles from Knoxville, is partially 
completed. One hundred and thirty miles will complete the connection 
and bring us within easy communication with Louisville and Cincinnati. 
The route has been surveyed by competent engineers, and found to be 
not only practicable, but comparatively free from the difficulties usually 
characteristic of mountain routes. It traverses one of the finest coal and 
iron regions on the globe. While its construction would relieve the 
army in this region and that operating south of here, it would at the 
same time afford relief to, and, in fact, furnish the basis of the resettle- 
ment of East Tennessee. It would stimulate enterprise, and develop the 
rich mineral resources of the country through which it would pass. It 
would give to the cities of the North and West the trade of a country 
numbering 400,000 in population, irrevocably unite our destinies with 
theirs, appreciate the value of property along the line and at both ex- 
tremes, create wealth by encouraging industry and building up manufac- 
tories, and establish a new bond of reunion through the social and com- 
mercial intercourse thus secured. These incidental advantages to the 
people of East Tennessee, we would respectfully suggest, would be but a 
grateful return to them for the countless losses they have sustained, and 
for the untold persecutions they have heroically endured for the sake of 
the Union ; especially when it is considered that our people have never 
participated in the benefits of any of the liberal grants of public lands 
made by Congress from time to time to our sister Western States for 
educational and railroad purposes. If the purposes of Government can 
lie facilitated, and its necessities removed, and at the same time the wants 
of the people of East Tennessee be relieved, we feel well assured that 



38 

your Excellency will find in the incidental result a new and stronger 
inducement to urge the speedy accomplishment of the work proposed. 

We have thus, in compliance with our instructions, attempted briefly 
unci plainly to make known to your Excellency our present and proba- 
ble future condition as a people, and to suggest the remedy which, in 
our opinion, seems best calculated to afford sure and permanent relief. 
We feel well assured that your Excellency will not be insensible to our 
appeal, nor unmindful of the sufferings of a people in whose welfare 
your Excellency has heretofore manifested so lively an interest. We 
rely, too, with confidence upon the liberality and wisdom of the repre- 
sentatives of a great and magnanimous people for such action on their 
part as may be consistent with their duties and conducive to the relief of 
our people. 

Allow us, in conclusion, to congratulate your Excellency upon the 
success already attained by the Union armies in breaking the. power of 
the rebellion, and to express the hope that, with the entire restoration 
of the national authority, our people everywhere may ere long be blessed 
with a return of that peace and prosperity which can be enjoyed only 
under the Government of the United States. 

We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your Excellency's obedi- 
ent servants, 

THOMAS W. HUMES, 
WM. HEISKBLL, 
W. G. BROWNLOW, 
JOHN BAXTER, 
0. P. TEMPLE, 
JOHN M. FLEMING. 



B. 

Wak Department, Washington City, 
March 2d, 1864. 
General — 

An Association for the relief of those citizens of East Tennessee 
who have been reduced to destitution by the events of the war, has been 
formed in Philadelphia, and a considerable fund has been raised to pro- 
cure supplies. 

The Association has appointed as its Commissioners for the distribution 
of these supplies, Messrs. Frederic Collins, Col. N. G. Taylor, and Lloyd 
P. Smith. I beg to commend them to your kindness, and to request that 
you will render them any assistance which may be in your power. They 
should have free transportation for themselves, their agents, and the 



articles which they desire to distribute, upon all Government railroads 
and chartered vessels. 

I am, General, yours with great respect, 

C. A. DANA, 

Assistant Secretary of War. 

The above letter bears the following indorsement : — 
This letter will serve to introduce the bearers to General Thomas, 
General Schofield, or any other commanding officers to whom they may 
have occasion to apply, beside General Grant. 

C. A. DANA, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 



"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; 
I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye 
visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." — Matt. xxv. 35, 36. 

fjcnbquartcrs Refugee Relief Commission of Ohio. 

No. 178 Vine Street. 

President. — GEO. F. DAVIS, President of Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. 

Treasurer B. F. BRANNAN, President of Franklin Bank. 

Vice-President. — D. B. PIERSON, President of Cincinnati Horticultural Society. 

Secretary.— JOHN D. CALDWELL. 

Executive Committee. — Thos. G- Odiorne, Caltin W. Stahbuck, Capt. D. E. A. 
Tweed, Wm. H. Harrison, Henry Kessler, John Carlisle, S. C. Newton, 
Joseph Trounstine, S. S. Davis, Thos. Gilpin, James Dalton, W. Clifford 
Neff, L. S. Rosenstiel. 



Cincinnati, 0., March 17, 1S64. 



A Refugee Relief Commission for Ohio has just been organized in this 
city to receive contributions of money, clothing, and other articles needed 
for white Refugee sufferers from the Rebellion. The startling informa- 
tion reaches us that thousands of women, children, and aged men have 
been driven out of the South, or have fled to attainable points within the 
Union lines, and most of them are inadequately provided for, at Chatta- 
nooga, Nashville, Cairo, Pilot Knob, &c. ; all are meanly clad, well nigh 
starved, and many well nigh heart-broken. 

The demand for supplies is urgent — the cause is one of the most Chris- 
tian of charities. Humanity demands of all to forward such relief as is 
in our power. Money, clothes, fruits, vegetables, luxuries for the sick 



40 

and delicate women are needed. The Express Companies will carry all 
articles to our address "Free." Send money to B. F. Brannan, Trea- 
surer, President of Franklin Bank, Cincinnati. Articles should be ad- 
dressed "Refugee Relief Commission," Cincinnati. Letters should 
be addressed to John D. Caldwell, Secretary. 

It is expected that the destitution of Refugees will require the special 
attention of loyal people in the North, for yet many months. We con- 
fidently appeal to the generous and humane in all parts of Ohio and 
elsewhere to send supplies to this point for distribution. Thousands in 
the South were forced into revolt or deceived by conspirators. Now, 
when the women and children are suffering, let us extend them immediate 
and abundant relief. 

Respectfully yours, 

JOHN D. CALDWELL, 

Secretary. 

Please have this Circular read from the Pulpits that Congregations 
may organize as Auxiliaries. Ladies' Aid Societies are requested to' 
take an active part in this benevolent enterprise. 



NASHVILLE REFUGEE COMMISSION. 

President. 
Hon. DAYID T. PATTERSON. 

Secretary. 
JOHN M. GAUT, Esq. 

Committee to Receive and Distribute Donations. 
Hon. JOS. S. FOWLER, Gen. ALVINE C. GILLEN, 

Hon. HORACE MAYNARD, JOS. R. DILLIN, Esq., 

J. C. MERCER, Esq., JAMES M. HINTON, Esq. 



THE WHITE REFUGEES AT CAIRO. 
THEIR CONDITION, NUMBERS, AND WANTS. 

Cairo Relief Association, 

February 22d, 1864. 
To answer many inquiries concerning the condition of the White Re- 
fugees arriving here from the South, as well as to inform all of the true 



41 

situation of this hapless class of our fellow citizens, who feel an interest 
in their welfare, the Executive Board of the Cairo Relief Association 
would respectfully represent that : — 

With the triumphal march of our armies through sections in rebellion, 
whole communities have flocked to our lines for protection against a 
misrule they took no part in establishing, and a despotism they have 
been powerless to resist. The fact of their having lived in rebel States 
is hastily and wrongly seized upon as evidence conclusive of their dis- 
loyalty. While this is true in some instances, yet we are satisfied from 
much personal intercourse with them, that had they been surrounded by 
loyal influences, the mass would have been quite as devoted unionists as 
thousands amongst us whose loyalty is unquestioned. To the union men 
and women of the South we must look for the most brilliant evidences of 
devotion to the old flag under trials of which we, in the full tide of peace 
and prosperity, can form no adequate conception. 

A SKETCH OF THEIR CONDITION IN THE SOUTH. 

The reign of terror which exists throughout all the rebel States lying 
in and adjacent to the Mississippi valley, has no parallel in the most 
barbarous annals of our country. 

Their able bodied men have been conscripted, or, fleeing to the woods 
and swamps, have been hunted with bloodhounds and shot like beasts. 

Their crops have been destroyed. 

Their lands laid waste. 

Their cattle and teams driven off. 

Their granaries robbed. 

Their cotton burned. 

Their houses sacked and razed. 

Women have been stripped of their clothing, and turned naked upon 
the world. 

Men, deserting from a service they hated, have been caught and made 
to "dance wild on the wind" from the branches of trees which overhung 
their own dwellings. 

Children, interceding, have been shot. 

Mothers, imploring mercy, have had their infants stabbed on their 
breasts. 

Sympathy with the Union cause has been made the sole occasion for 
atrocities unheard of in intestine war. 

The rich and poor alike are prostrate, smitten and srrppliant from their 
very destitution. 

The presence of our troops brings security. Their advance is the sig- 



42 

nal for the " conscript hunters" to impress the men, for the "forest men," 
who know no law, and respect no age, sex, or condition, to rise up. pil- 
lage and destroy what contending armies had left, and to prevent those 
from escaping who would flee from the horrors of starvation which awaits 
the thousands who remain. 

Thus, with cruel hand, has rebellion mingled a bitter cup for its un- 
willing subjects, and is now dealing out to them its dregs. It has indeed 
given them for Happiness, Misery; for Liberty, Tyranny; and changed 
the joy of their lives into the wormwood of intolerable existence. 

What should a Christian people do for exiles in such a case ? 

THEIR SITUATION IN CAIRO. 

They are sent here by the military authorities, on government trans- 
ports and steamers, and landed on our levee at all hours of the night 
and day. There they are left, shelterless and penniless, their future an 
aimless blank. More than two hundred have recently been set on shore 
at a late hour of the night, and compelled to remain exposed to the in- 
clemencies of the weather until morning. The average number per 
month now exceeds two thousand, with a prospect of an increase rather 
than diminution of arrivals. 

A few have teams or money enough to take them a hundred miles into 
the country by railroad. Some have friends in the North who would 
assist them on their reaching them. Nearly all are anxious to get into 
the rural districts, where they can find homes and make an honorable 
livelihood by their labor. Some, indeed, who have been taught and ac- 
customed to look upon labor as menial, may have to learn by sad expe- 
rience the blessing and dignity of manly toil. 

Nine-tenths of all are women and children, four-fifths of whom are 
children of tender years. But very few are infirm from age.* 

Of late, the proportion of men is increasing, owing to desertions and 
the rigor with which the conscription is enforced. Every religious denomi- 
nation and fraternal brotherhood have their representatives among them. 

They bring with them some articles of their " household plunder" and 
the tattered remnants of wardrobes that have not been replenished during 
the three years of suffering since first their "troubles came." Children 
come without hats, shoes, or stockings, and hundreds without a change 
of clothing. Those who have lived in affluence are reduced to equal ex- 
tremities of want with the poor. Of course, cleanliness is impossible in 
their condition. 

* No colored fugitives are arriving. Very liberal provision is being made for 
thein by the government, and through the several Freedmeu's Commissions. 



43 

The health of the most is reduced by exposure and by bad and scanty 
food. Many are sick, requiring immediate medical attendance and the 
tenderest nursing care. 

A mother and her four daughters have died of exposure within the 
space of one week. The widowed mother of several children is now sick, 
with but little prospect of recovery. The number of sick is increasing 
rapidly. 

GOVERNMENT AID. 

The only gratuity they receive from the general government after 
arrival is rations of flour and bacon, with fuel, and the occupancy of one 
small barrack. 

Neither stoves, straw for beds, medical attendance, nor transportation 
beyond this post is furnished. 

THE WORK OF PRIVATE MUNIFICENCE. 

The benevolent people of the North, in response to the earnest solici- 
tations of Rev. E. Folsom, Post Chaplain, have contributed about $8000 
and a large amount of clothing. C. N. Shipman, Agt. U. S. S. Com., 
has, with this money, furnished transportation to about 4000 persons, 
and disbursed the clothing judiciously to many more. 

The local organization which we represent, was established to aid "any 
sufferers who might be cast among us by the casualties of war or the un- 
toward events of civil life." After providing for every needy person in 
the city, our efforts have been engrossed by the wants of the White Re- 
fugees. It has been our aim to look after the very needy, to provide 
them with shelter, suitable food, and medical attendance for the sick, to 
procure homes and employment for the well. 

A Refugee's Rest and Hospital is being established, and such general 
assistance rendered as may be required. The physicians of the city and 
the ladies have volunteered their assistance and reudered very important 
and timely service. 

The work has grown upon our hands. Demands are made upon us 
each week for transportation, and aid in various ways, sufficient, if met, 
to exhaust our means. 

Should these private enterprises fail or prove inadequate, as there is 
reason to apprehend, the situation of new arrivals must become heart- 
rending — verging on despair. 

Some of the railroad companies have already expressed their readiness 
to transport them at reduced rates. Correspondence is pending to extend 
these facilities. 



u 



WHAT THEY NEED. 



First. Homes, and some help to start in life again. 

Second. Employment at such work as they may be capable of doing. 

Third. Clothing of a plain substantial character, shoes, hats, dresses, &c. 

Fourth. Seed for planting gardens in the spring. 

Fifth. Money to pay their passage to homes in the country, for the 
purchase of necessaries, and for defraying current expenses of the "Rest." 

Sixth. The childreu need, not less than food and clothing, school learn- 
ing, and instruction in some useful calling to fit them for business. 

APPEAL. 

Spring time is at hand. Ten thousand unfilled acres lie waiting for 
the labor which these famishing people could bestow, had they the op- 
portunity. 

They are not all "poor white trash," cursed by a double bondage of 
ignorance and unthrift. Many of them owned farms and tilled them with 
their own hands ; spun, wove, and made their own clothing. They still 
seem hopeful, courageous, and intelligent, asking only for a chance to 
start again, nothing doubting that they can do well. Hundreds point 
with proud satisfaction to their fathers and brothers standing side by 
side with our heroes in the Union army of the West. 

Lately, they were our friends and neighbors; we bought of their pro- 
ducts and sold them our merchandise. If we receive and treat them 
kindly, they cannot live our enemies; if we turn them off in coldness, who 
can predict the dark despair that shall settle down upon their future ! 

Never has helpless womanhood appealed in vain for aid. Surely a 
nation that has a heart and open hand for the oppressed of other lands, 
cannot be dead to the supplications of the terror stricken of its own. 

Shall not the cry of the children, as they lie on the levee, with inno- 
cent hands uplifted for help, be heard ? Time can never blot from their 
minds the thoughts of the hapless fate to which rebellion has consigned 
them. May we not embrace the opportunity to show them the blessings 
and worth of a great and good government? Let them not wait as 
at Bethesda, until the day of their healing and salvation is passed. Let 
us take them by the hand right speedily. 

Our only aspiration is " to do all the good we can." With this view 
we solicit the assistance and co-operation of the benevolent and humane 
everywhere, pledging the strictest integrity in the use of means committed 
to our trust. 
'Correspondence is solicited with those wanting laborers. 



45 

Money may be remitted in drafts to our treasurer, clothing or other 

goods through any Sanitary Commission, marked " White Refugees, 

Cairo, Illinois." Full and frequent reports will be sent to all who may 

contribute. 

GEO. D. WILLIAMSON, President, 

JOHN C. WHITE, 1 

JOS. McKENZIE, | — „ ., . 

' V Vice-Presidents. 

DANIEL HURD, 

CHAS. GALIGHER, J 

WM. J. YOST, Recording Secretary. 

C. T. CHASE, Corresponding- Secretary. 

A. B. SAFEORD, Treasurer. 

N. B. Persons receiving this circular are requested to procure for it 
a reading in the Churches, and publication in the local papers. 



THK END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




